Couple turns historic property into events venue

Ms. Gilmore's Carriage House at Humboldt Place is the culmination of a long-cherished dream for Robin Gilmore.

Robin and her husband, Rick, owner of After Hours Plumbing Co., purchased the property at 847 S. Scenic Ave. in May 2007 for an undisclosed amount. Humboldt Place was built in 1902 by retired mining engineer Paul Nicholas.

The propertyincludes a 6,000-square-foot, 11-room home and a carriage house with about 3,400 square feet.

The Gilmores have turned the carriage house into a special events site, with the goal of 20 to 25 bookings a year to recoup what they've invested in the property and support its upkeep. What they've learned is that achieving their vision is an ongoing project.

Home sweet home

Entrepreneurialism is nothing new to Robin Gilmore, who has always paired creative expression and business. She started out painting ceramic salt and pepper shakers to sell door-to-door when she was in seventh grade.

After high school, she operated Robin's, a downtown Branson boutique, and later built her own wholesale business designing folk art pieces and wreaths, one of which was featured on the back of the Saks Fifth Avenue Christmas catalog in 1982. She also had a tea room, My Cup of Tea, in Branson.

Robin and Rick Gilmore were married in 2005. The couple's shared love of antiques and auctions led to another business, Galloway Girls, which closed when the landlord decided to sell their building.

Since 2004, the couple knew they wanted to purchase the Humboldt Place property, then owned by Charles Walker Realty. Walker wasn't interested in selling the home at that time.

In June 2006, Walker's business was the subject of a federal investigation. The Gilmores, who had asked Realtor Patrick Murney to keep an eye on Humboldt Place, had the property under contract for an undisclosed sum within an hour of it being listed. At the time, the home was in foreclosure. The Gilmores completed their purchase that spring, just months after the historic January '07 ice storms.

The cost of clearing limbs and debris from the heavily wooded property was estimated at $68,000.

With the help of family members, church volunteers and complete strangers, the Gilmores ultimately hauled off 22 semitrailer loads of debris.

Meanwhile, the house itself, though beautiful, was in need of work, Robin Gilmore said. The soffits were rotted; there were no light fixtures or kitchen cabinets; floors had to be refinished and retiled; ceilings and bathrooms needed to be redone; and everything needed to be repainted.

The work was nonstop, but Gilmore kept her vision of the finished product before her, and renovations to the home were completed about 30 days after the couple purchased it.

It turned out, however, that renovating the house was the easy part.

A home for special events

The Gilmores' plan was that the small business based in the carriage house would generate enough income to cover the cost of keeping up and improving the property, and the couple estimated that the carriage house conversion would take $30,000 to $40,000.

"We thought it was just going to be a nice little small business," Robin Gilmore said. However, the city, and especially planning and zoning, had some surprises in store. Rezoning the property, handling stormwater and parking issues, meeting city codes and outfitting the space ended up taking nine months and around $250,000.

"It blew us away," Gilmore said of the renovation process, "but we never gave up."

The renovation process wound up being a race against time for the first wedding ceremony at Humboldt Place.

"We got our occupancy license at 4:30 on the 19th of September and had a wedding the next day," she added. Since then, she has booked about 15 events.

These days, the Gilmores' goal for the business is to recoup their investment; Robin Gilmore said work on Ms. Gilmore's Carriage House at Humboldt Place has been privately funded.

Ms. Gilmore's is available for $150 to $3,500, depending on the time of year and the type of event, and the property can accommodate anything from small birthday parties and showers to corporate retreats, anniversary celebrations and weddings.

Weddings at Ms. Gilmore's feature full use of the grounds, which include wooded trails, bronze statuary and several gardens. A 1958 Mercedes sedan wedding car delivers the bride to her destination in classic style.

Information on Ms. Gilmore's Carriage House is available at Karl's Wedding Center, The Wedding Collection and Total Bride, and Ms. Gilmore's also participates in various wedding shows.

Gilmore said she wants to book a maximum of 20 to 25 events per year, noting that she doesn't want the property to become so run over that it's not special anymore.

Since purchasing the property, the Gilmores have twice opened their home for Christmas season tours to benefit local arts and charity organizations. Tours to benefit Springfield Symphony in 2008 and Women in Need in 2007 garnered $7,600 for those organizations.

Gilmore said she is now working with Springfield Regional Opera on a garden tour and spring open house.

The biggest challenge now, Gilmore said, is squeezing charity tours into an increasingly hectic wedding schedule.[[In-content Ad]]